Mohd Rafi's native village remembers him on death anniversary

Chandigarh, Aug 1: Legendary playback singer Mohammed Rafi's native village Kotla Sultan in Punjab's Amritsar district remembered him on his 34th death anniversary on Thursday as scores of people paid tributes. "We organised a function in the village.

A number of people and Rafi saheb's fans thronged to pay tributes," Rajesh, a fan of the singer, said. A singing competition was also organised for the children to pay tributes to the singer. Rafi was born in Kotla Sultan village, about 30 kms from Amritsar in Punjab, and about 250 kms from here. Born on December 24, 1924, Rafi died of heart attack in Mumbai on July 31, 1980.

He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1967. During his singing career, Rafi lent his voice to Bollywood megastars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra and Dev Anand. He has numerous hit songs to his credit including several duets with famous playback singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.

Working with music directors like OP Nayyar, Laxmikant Pyarelal and R D Burman, Rafi delivered many evergreen hits like "Yeh duniya yeh mehfil...", "Chura liya hai tumne...", "O haseena...", "Tum jo mil gaye ho..." and "Aaj mausam bada beimaan..".

PTI